Semi-weekly south Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1883-1889, 1887-05-06
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| the miniature, at which he had been gazing
afiectionately; ''and now let us read tho
letters" and without further ado he broke tho
seal, and read aloud as follows:
My Son LEo-wheh you open this, II you ever
| live to do so, you will have attained TO manhood
and shall have been long enough dead TO be alb.
| solutely forgotten by nearly all who knew me-
Yet in reading II remember that have been, and
| for anything you know may still be, and that in
| II, through this link Of pen and paper, stretch
| out my hand TO you across the gulf OF DEATH and
my voice speaks 10 you from the unutterable
silence of the grave. Though am dead, and no
memory OF ne remains in your mind, yet am
with you in lhis hour that you read. Since your
birth to this day have scarcely seen your face.
| Forgive me Ihis. Your life suppanted the life Of
| one whom loved better than women are often
| loved and the bitterness of II endureth yet. Had
| l lived should in time have conquered this fool
| fish feeling, but am not destined to live My
sufferngs, physical and mental, are more than
| can bear, and when such small arrangements as
have to make for your future well being are COM
peted 1t is my intention to put period to them
May God forgive me II do wrongi At the best
could not live more than another year"
$50 he killed himself" l exclaimed. II
thought So"
And now, Leo went on without replying,
enough of myself. What has to be said belongsto
| you, who live-not to me, who am dead and almost
as much forgotten as though had never been.
Holly, my friend Ito whom, II he will accept tho
trust, II is my intention to confde YOU, will have
told YOU something Of the extraordinary antiquity
| Of your race In the contents of this cnsket you
will find sufficient to prove It, The strange
legend that you will find inscribed by your re-
mote anc, stress upon the potsherd was commu-
nicated 10 me by my father on his death bed and
took strong hold upon my Imagination. When
was only 10 years of age deteIInined-as, to
his misfortune, did one of our ancestors about
the time of Elizabeth-to investigate its
truth. Into all that befell me / cannot enter
SOW. But this l saw with my own eye
On the coast OF Africa, IN hitherto uhexrlored
region, some distance to the north of where the
Zambes falls into the sea, there is headland, at
.he extremity of which peak towers up, shaped
ike the head of q negro, similar to that OF which
The writing speaks. landed there, and learned
rom wandering native, who had been cast out
~ his people because of some crime which he
had committed, that far inland are great noun
ians, shaped like cups, and caves surrounded by
measurcless swamps. learned also that tho
people there speak q dialect Of Arabic, and arc
ruled over by beautiful white woman, who is
seldom seen by them, but who is reported to have
power over all things living and dead. Two days
after had ascertained this the man died of fever
contracted in crossing the swamps, and was
forced by want of provisions and by symptoms OF
the illness winch pIooliutSu tthho
10 my dhow again.
OF the adventures that befell me after this /
need not now speak. was wrecked upon the
coast of Madagascar, and rescued some months
nfterward by an English ship that brought me to
Alden whence started for England, intending to
prosecute my search as soon as had made suiil-
cient preparations. On my way stopped 10
Greece, and there, for 'omnia Yincit amor" met
your beloved mother and married her and there
YOU were born and she died Then II was that my
last illness seized me, and returned hither to die.
But still hoped against hope, and set myself to
work to learn Arabic with the intention, should
ever get better of returning to the coast of Africa
and solving the mystery Of which the tradition
has lived so many centuries in our family But
have not got better, and so far as am concerned,
the story is at an end
1r you, however, my son, 1t Is not at an end,
and to you hand on these the results OF my labor,
together with the hereditary proofs of its origin.
1t is my intention TO provide that they shall not
be nut into your hands until you have reached an
nge when you will be able to judge for yourself,
whether or no you will choose to investigate
what II 1t Is true, must be the greatest mystery
In the world OF to put 1t by as an idle fable,
originating In the first place IN q womans dis-
ordered brain.
do not believe that 10 is q fable; believe
that il IL can only be redscovered, there is spot
where the vital forces of the wcrld visbly exist.
Life exists; why, therefore, shoIld not the means
Of preserving It indefinitely exist alsos But
have no wish to prejudice your mind about the
matter. Read and judge for yourself Ifyou are
inclined to undertake the search have so pro-
yided that you will not lacf for means. IT. on the
other hand, you are sat SIZED that the whole
thing is a chimera, then l ndjure you to de
stroy the potsherd aid the writings, and
let q cause OF troubling be removed from
our race forever. Perhfps that will be wisest
The unknown is generally taken to be ter
rible not as the proverb would infer, from the in
herent superstition OF man, but because 1t so
often is terrible. He who would tamper with tho
vast and secret forces that animate the world
may well fall victim TO them. And II the end
were attained, II at last you emerged from the
trial ever beautiful and ever young, defying time
and evil, and lifted above the natural decay Of
flesh and intellect, who shall say that the awe
some change would prove happy onef Choose,
my son, and may the Power who rules all things,
and who says Thus far shalt thou go, and thus
much shalt thou learn direct the choice TO your
own happiness and the happiness OF the world,
which, in the event of your success, you would
one day certainly rule by the pure force Of &c
cumulated experience. FAREWELL
Thus the letter, which was unsigned and
undated, abruptly ended.
"What do you make OF that, Uncle Hollyp'
said Leo, with sort Of gasp, as he replaced
Il on the table ave have been looking for a
mystery and we certainly seem to havo found
one"
'What do make OF III Why, that your
dear father was Off his head, of course an
swered testify. II guessed as much that
night, twenty years ago, when he came into
nv room. You see, he evidently hurried
his own end, poor man. 1t is absolute balder-
dash"
aThat's 1t, sill, said Job, solemnly. Job
was n most matter Of fact specimen of a mat
ter of fact class.
aWell let's see what the potsherd has to
say, at any rate" said Leo, taking up tbs
translation in his fathers writing and COM
mencing to read:
~, Amenartas, Of the royal house Of
Hakor, Pharaoh Of Egypt, wife of Kali
crates the strong and beautiful, or tho
beautiful in strength, priest of Isis, whom
the gods cherish and the demons obey, being
about to die, to my little son Tisisthenes tho
mighty avenger). fed with thy father from
Egypt in the days Of Nekht-nebf, causing
him through love to break the vows that ho
had vowed. We fled southwark, across tho
waters, and we wandered for twice twelvp
moons on the coast of Libya Africa that
looks towards the rising sun. where by a
river is q great rock carven like the head OF
an Ethiopian. Four days on the water from
the mouth of a mighty river were we cast
away, and some were drowned and some died
of sickness. But us wild men took through
wastes and marshes, where tho sea fowl hid
the sky, bearing us ten days journey, till we
came to hollow mountain, where great
city had been and fallen, and where there nre
caves of which no man hath seen the end;
and they brought us to the queen Of the peo-
pie who place pots upon the heads Of strang-
ers, who is a magician having knowledge of
oil things, and life and loveliness that does
not die. And she cast eyes Of love upon thy
father, Kallilnates, and would have slain
me- and taken him to husband, but he loved
me and feared her, and would not Then did
she take us, and lead us by terrible ways, by
means OF dark magic, TO where the great pit
Is, in the mouth Of which the old philosopher
lay dead, aud showed to us the rolling pillar
of life that dies not, whereof the voice Is as
the voice OF thunder, and did stand in the
flames, and come forth unframed and yol
more beautiful Then did she swear TO make
thy father undying, oven as she Is, II he would
but Stay me and give himself TO her, for mo
she could not Stay because OF tho magic oi
my own people that | have and that pre-
vailed thus far against her. Anfhe held his